French Strikes Disrupt Transport Services

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, June 9, 2003

French strikers disrupted urban transport and train service across the nation on Tuesday _ the day parliament was opening debate on a highly contested pension reform plan.

Air traffic controllers also were walking off the job Tuesday, threatening cancelations of flights and long waits for travelers.

French youth also were affected by the walkout as their teachers, who have held strikes sporadically since April, were skipping class in larger numbers.

Scores of cities were affected by the strikes.

It was a critical day for the government of center-right Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin who has vowed to push through his plan to reform the retirement system in order to pump in more money and keep it from collapsing.

Parliament was to open debate on the reform plan that increases the number of years employees must work to get full benefits. Public sector employees are to increase their current 37.5 years of work to 40 years, like the private sector, by 2008.

The government also wants to make changes in the national education system, including decentralization. It planned to hold a round-table Tuesday with teachers' unions. The government has promised firmness where the strike threatens end-of-the-year exams, which start Thursday.

The reforms have set four main unions against the government. The Communist-linked CGT has led a strike for a week. On Tuesday, the three other unions joined the protest.

Marches were planned in cities from Paris to Bordeaux in the southwestern wine country to the northwest port city of Brest.